Because of You
by SkyFighter
Summary: After her friend, Shiloh the Luxio, is injured in their mission to capture an outlaw, Diana the Umbreon feels guilty for the result. But perhaps her friend doesn't see things the same way. Set in the PMD2 world, and contains moderate game spoilers.


**Because of You**

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**Dedicated to HopeThePixii. I know it isn't much, but Happy Birthday! ^^  
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Late one night in Wigglytuff's Guild, a time so late that everyone was asleep. Well, _almost_ everybody.

Diana the Umbreon unwound herself from the ball she was sleeping in to glance toward her sleeping partner. Shiloh the Luxio, her best friend and partner in their exploration team, Team Dark Lightning, was curled up in his soft straw bed a short distance away.

She watched the gentle rise and fall of his chest, its slow rhythm telling her that he was already sound asleep, his breath coming out in soft snores. His facial expression seemed to be serene, making her wonder if he was having a good dream.

He must be tired, she thought. After all, our mission today involved quite a lot of battling against types he isn't very strong against...

She closed her ruby-colored eyes as she thought back to the events in their trip to Northern Desert to capture an outlaw Nidoking.

* * *

"_Diana! Look out!" Shiloh shouted as the Nidoking outlaw charged toward her, poison dripping from his clenched fist and onto the ground._

_The hits she had already taken from their previous engagements with other pokemon had worn her out, and by the time she was able to scramble to her feet, it was too late for her to do anything, as the outlaw was already bearing down upon her. For such a lumbering giant, he was certainly fast—and strong; though, that was probably a given since the authorities had been having an incredibly hard time apprehending him._

_As the ground/poison type wound up for the attack, Diana knew all too well that the incoming blow would likely knock her out cold, leaving Shiloh to face a pokemon that he naturally wasn't effective against alone, without a partner to cover his back. After he had so valiantly fought through the Nidoking's henchmen's ambush, she knew that he was likely as worn out as she was, and even if he were a full strength, this would be a tough opponent for him._

_As the outlaw sent his poison-saturated fist hurtling toward her, Diana shut her eyes and waited for the blow. It never came. A sudden breeze blew across her face, followed by the sound of a spectacular collision._

_Her eyes snapped open and she quickly scanned the surrounding area as the Nidoking tromped along the ground toward a blue and gray figure, who she immediately recognized as her friend, was sprawled out on the ground a short distance away. Then it hit her as to what happened: Shiloh had dove into the way of the attack meant for her, taking the hit and drawing the outlaw's attention away from her._

_The Luxio struggled to get to his feet, grunting with the effort, but the blow had impacted just behind his left shoulder blade, blood oozing from the wound, rendering him incapable of doing so easily. Diana watched in horror as the outlaw charged toward her partner as he struggled to get up. She desperately wanted to rush over to her partner's side to defend him, but fear rendered her incapable of action._

* * *

Her eyes snapped open as she remembered the moment, suddenly afraid that her partner was more hurt than he said he was. Now that she thought about it, he could barely put any weight on his leg for the duration of the walk home, and even after Belle the Chimecho treated the wound when they got back. He wasn't feeling up for dinner, so he had gone to bed early, leaving Diana to join him in their quarters later in the evening. They had even been excused from their duties—a rare occurrence at the Guild—for the next few days to give the shoulder a chance to heal up.

Almost frantic, Diana stood up and quickly padded the short distance to where her sleeping friend lay. He was sleeping on his right side, allowing her to easily take a good look at his injured side as the moonlight shown over him. Although the wound was covered by a white, cloth bandage soaked in oran and pecha berry juice, some of the blood had seeped through the bandage and had sense dried up on the outermost layer of the bandage. As far as she could tell, the wound had stopped bleeding, but she could tell that Shiloh's shoulder was most definitely swollen, probably a side-effect of the poison that had seeped into the local area.

The pecha berry juice should help with that, Diana thought.

She gently touched the swollen area around the bandage with her paw, making sure her claws were sheathed so as not to scratch him, to feel if perhaps Belle had missed a lesser injury.

Belle is a good nurse, Diana thought as she gently ran her pads over the swollen area surrounding the bandage on Shiloh's shoulder, but there can't be any harm in checking to make sure she didn't miss anything...

It quickly became obvious that Shiloh had groomed himself that evening, as he often did when he wasn't feeling well, since his fur was soft and clean to the touch. Diana absentmindedly ran her paws through his thick pelt, feeling his muscular frame beneath, her original intent of checking for scratches lost as her mind wandered.

"Something wrong, Diana?"

The voice startled Diana out of her thoughts. She quickly looked over toward the entrance to their room, expecting a curious stare to greet her; but to her surprise, no one was there. She looked back toward her partner, and was surprised to see his curious golden yellow eyes staring back at her.

Diana abruptly backed away, embarrassed that she had accidentally woken her partner.

"S-Shiloh!" she stammered, as she fell back onto her haunches onto her bed, suddenly worried her partner might be upset that she woke him. "I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to wake you! I was just--"

"It's alright," her Luxio partner interrupted, his eyes soft and his tone gentle, "I'm sure you didn't wake me on purpose; and even when you do, you usually have a good reason."

"I'm sorry, Shi," Diana said sadly, unable to meet his curious stare, and her long, elliptical Umbreon ears drooping.

"It's alright, Diana! It's alright!" Shiloh replied, worry suddenly coming into his tone as he tried to reassure his distressed friend.

The Luxio quickly rose to a sitting position, gasping in pain as he put weight on his injured leg. He quickly shifted to another position that would better allow him to keep his weight off his wounded foreleg. The end result was a sitting position where he was completely sitting on top of his right rear leg in a rather undignified position that a certain Guildmaster's right-hand pokemon would surely complain about.

Unable to contain her sorrow any longer after seeing the pain in Shiloh's face as he shifted positions, Diana broke into tears.

"Oh, Shiloh," she sobbed, "It's all my fault you got hurt! If... If I wasn't such a coward and froze up at that moment, you wouldn't have taken that hit..."

"Oh, Diana..." Shiloh sighed, as he limped over to his friend and began licking her between her ears with long, smooth strokes. "Don't worry about it. I'll be honest and say it hurts—a lot—but, it was worth it."

Diana looked up from the ground to meet Shiloh's soft gaze, Feraligatr tears still streaming across her sleek black, furry cheeks.

"How can you say that it was worth it?" she sniffed. "The outlaw got away from us, remember?"

"Oh yes, I definitely remember," Shiloh conceded with a rather sad smile, padding the few steps back to his bed and turning to sit facing his partner, in the same awkward position as before. "He certainly got away from us."

"See?" Diana wailed, "How could it possibly be 'worth it' if we didn't even accomplish our mission?"

For a moment, Shiloh was silent. He seemed to suddenly take interest in the ground beneath him, scraping it around with his forepaws, before he looked back up to her.

"It was worth it because..." he stammered, looking back at the ground beneath his paws, "because... I did it for you, Diana. That alone made it worth it to me."

Diana abruptly stopped her sobbing with one last sniffle, wiping the remaining tears away with her paw.

"You.. you did it for me? W-Why?" she asked, not quite understanding her friend's logic.

"Because you gave me a reason to live," Shiloh murmured, still looking at the ground, "You found me on the beach when I had no friends nor memories whatsoever."

"But that's hardly anything to thank me for!" Diana exclaimed, before lowering her voice, remembering that the Guild's pokemon were still—hopefully—sleeping, "I just found you on the beach and you helped me get my Relic Fragment back when Team Skull stole it. How was that important?"

"Yes it is, Diana," Shiloh replied, "If you hadn't found me, I would have probably just wandered the planet completely alone, without a single friend or memory to go from. I wouldn't have ever been able to use my Dimensional Scream, since I wouldn't have had a friend to speak of; and the world likely would have been paralyzed long ago since no one would have known what was coming. You changed all of that by simply being my friend, Diana. It's because of you that I am who I am today."

Shiloh finally looked back up at his Umbreon partner searching her face for any emotion. Diana suddenly felt her muzzle grow hot, and quickly looked away from her friend in an effort to hide her blush.

"...It sounds like I did so much, when you put it like that, Shiloh," she said in disbelief, "but it should be me who feels the debt to you! It was because of you that I was even able to gather the courage to apprentice here. You helped me through the tough times we went through in the future, and you..."

Her words caught in her throat as she recalled that moment on the path high above the Hidden Land.

"...and you," she continued, fighting back her emotions, "fought Dialga and helped to change history, knowing full well that you'd be erased from existence. You gave up everything you had..."

Her emotions suddenly overtook her, and she sunk back into her bed, wracking with deep sobs. Shiloh had almost been overcome with emotion himself, as he recalled what was going through his mind in the seconds before his own disappearance, and he was broken out of his trance by his friend's sobs. Not entirely sure what to do to comfort his friend, he padded over to where Diana lay.

He laid down on the ground next to her bed and gently placed his paw over hers.

"It's alright Diana," he whispered into her ear, giving her a reassuring lick on the cheek "You don't ever have to worry about me disappearing again. I'm back for good."

"I'm sorry Shiloh," Diana sobbed in response, "I know you're back. It's just... those few weeks without you were the worst of my life. You can't possibly know how badly I missed you for those three terrible weeks."

"I probably could, actually," Shiloh replied, "I felt the same way those three weeks. I never felt so alone in my whole life. I hope I never feel that alone ever again. But I'm with you now, so I'm happy."

"Really?" Diana sniffed, "You mean it?"

"Yes, I mean it," Shiloh replied. "Meeting you was by far and away the best thing that ever happened to me. You're a friend like no other, Diana, and don't you ever forget that."

"Thanks for cheering me up, Shi," Diana murmured, wiping the remaining tears off on her paw. "It's late, so we should probably get back to bed."

"This coming from the Umbreon who woke me up just a short time ago, not able to sleep," Shiloh laughed, as he limped back over to his bed and gingerly laid down on his bed.

"Yeah, kinda hypocritical of me," Diana laughed along. "Good night, Shi."

There was a muffled grunt in response.

Diana sighed as she got into her usual sleeping position and tried to sleep, but for some reason, her mind kept racing. Shiloh had assured her that he'd be fine, so why was something still nagging her. She ran through the events of the day in her head.

Well, nothing strange happened during the morning address, she thought, but we _did_ meet that strange pokemon at the crossroads while we were stocking up in Treasure Town. Maybe when we stopped for brunch at Apple Woods? No. That's not it either...

She continued running through the day until one thing jumped out at her. It was just after the battle with the outlaw in Northern Desert.

* * *

_Diana quickly fired a Shadow Ball at the outlaw Nidoking in an effort to defend her fallen partner, but the outlaw's pure strength combined with the long range made the move near meaningless. She had finally recovered enough from the shock of what had just taken place to fight back, but it was a futile effort._

"_Sorry to leave you explorers hanging," the criminal snorted, giving a mock salute, "but I have better things to do than fight you. Places to loot, pokemon to rob."_

_To Diana's dismay, the outlaw pulled out an orb of some sort and the next thing she saw was a blinding white flash. By the time her vision had returned, the criminal was long gone, with hardly so much as a footprint left to follow._

_Drat! she thought, He used the flash from that Luminous Orb as cover for an escape!_

_She had only seen such a maneuver preformed once before, back in the future when they were escaping from Primal Dialga's stockade. Quite ingenious, if you asked her, and it certainly worked well if your opponent wasn't expecting it._

_A strained groan from her Luxio partner quickly snapped her out of her grudging admiration of the outlaw's craftiness. She quickly padded across the hot desert sand to where her partner lay sprawled on the ground, his breath coming in ragged gasps. By now, the sky blue fur covering his flank was stained crimson with his blood._

"_Urgh, Diana?" Shiloh groaned, lifting his head off the ground to look at his closest friend._

"_No, just lie there quietly," Diana said. "You're badly hurt. You'll need your strength."_

"_Urr, where would I be without you to tell me such things?" the wounded Luxio wheezed in response, his sense of humor showing through despite his ordeal._

"_Just lie still," Diana insisted, almost pleaded with her partner, "I'll go fetch our bag and see if we have anything that could help."_

_She turned to go search for their bag, which they had dropped at the start of the confrontation so they had greater mobility in their battle with the Nidoking, but Shiloh wouldn't have that._

"_Diana, wait," he gasped, and she quickly turned back to face her friend, "there's something.. I have.. to tell you..."_

"_What, Shi?" she asked, leaning over her friend._

_Her friend lifted his head and stared her full in the eye. His gaze, piercing when he wanted it to be, was soft, almost desperate._

"_Diana, I... I..." he wheezed, his breaths becoming shallower as the poison began to set in._

"_What?" Diana asked, nuzzling her friend gently to encourage him._

_Her friend opened his mouth to continue, when his eyes suddenly rolled back into his head and he fell limply back to the desert sand and didn't stir other than the faint rise and fall of his flank._

* * *

Diana cringed at the memory. After her friend passed out on her, she panicked and wasn't sure what to do.

Should I go and look for their bag and hope they had medicine in it, or should I just forget about it and get him out of here and hope he can make it the journey back to the Guild? she remembered thinking.

She was glad she decided to go look for their bag, in the long run; as the escape orb and oran berries it contained likely were the deciding factor in them making it back to the Guild. The escape orb shortened the walk considerably, and the oran berries gave her friend just enough strength to finish the journey back.

Despite the stress that the situation had put her through, Diana still couldn't believe that she had forgotten that he wanted to tell her something until the late hours of the night! Now that she had remembered, though, she _had_ to find out what he was wanting to tell her.

Without a second thought, she hauled herself out of her bed and padded over to where her friend lay.

"Shi," she whispered, "You awake?"

"I am now," he groaned in response, as he hauled himself up to a sitting position. "What is it, Diana?"

"You remember back during our mission that you wanted to tell me something?" Diana inquired, sitting down next to him with her tail curled neatly over her forepaws.

Her friend looked thoughtful for a moment, before looking back at her, "Yeah, I remember," he murmured, "What about it?"

"Well, you passed out before you could tell me, and I was wondering what you were wanting to say." she replied.

For a moment, Shiloh said nothing. He looked up at the ceiling, then down at his paws, as if contemplating what to do. Finally, he lifted his gaze back up to meet hers.

"Diana," he began slowly, "I've been wanting to tell you... You mean so much to me... Uh, and after all we've been through together, well, I love you; and well, I'd like you to be my mate..."

Diana immediately recoiled in shock from the words, a sharp red blush blazing across her muzzle, a response that was misinterpreted by her Luxio partner as repulsion to the thought of his passion for her.

"I'm—I'm sorry," he sighed, his ears beginning to droop, "I shouldn't have told you. I wouldn't blame you if you never wished to speak to me again now."

The Luxio quietly curled back up on his bed with his back turned to her. Diana desperately searched for something to say, but the words "I love you" kept echoing around in her head, making the process difficult.

Why wasn't I surprised when he said that? she thought. I mean, I never thought he'd just tell me; _that_ was the real shock. Oh, but what am I to do? Now he thinks that I'm horrified about what all he said...

She sighed as she gazed at his hunched over form in his bed. For once, he didn't look like the strong, confident pokemon she knew; instead, what she looked upon was a physically battered, now emotionally crushed friend. And she was responsible, even though not intentionally.

Poor Shiloh, Diana thought, I'd do anything to make it up to him, but he looks so devastated...

She looked over his still form in the moonlight. Despite his sadness, Shiloh's fur glinted in the moonlight, a testimony to how well he took care of his pelt.

He's always had beautiful fur, she thought, I've always liked that about him... Now that I think about it, there's a lot of things I like about him. He's got fierce determination, but he has a sensitive side too. Not many guys are like that...

Diana stiffly got to her paws and padded around so that she could see her friend's face. The fur around his eyes was wet and his eyes were shut, making it painfully obvious that he was crying. Before she realized what she was even doing, Diana curled up on his bed next to him, mindful of his injured shoulder, and pressed her side against his. He stiffened in surprise, before relaxing upon realizing who it was.

"You know, Shi," she began, snuggling up against his warm side, "I've always enjoyed your company. I always feel safer when you're around me; and well, I love you too."

"Really?" Shiloh asked, wiping the tears off his face.

"Really." She leaned up and whispered into his ear. "Besides, you _are_ a cute guy. I'd be jealous of the girl who got you."

Now it was Shiloh's turn to blush, "Aww," He stammered, "but that's giving me too much credit! There are quite a few guys that are stronger than me and have shinier pelts than I do."

"Perhaps," Diana conceded with a shrug, "but I've never found them near as attractive as you are. They may have glossy coats; but _your_ coat far outshines theirs."

"Thanks, Diana," Shiloh whispered back to her, his muzzle tinged with red, "but your beautiful black pelt dazzles like the stars in the sky. My coat doesn't even compare to that!"

"Aww," she purred in response, nuzzling him underneath his chin, "You know Shi, I'd love to be your mate, if the offer is still open."

"What?" Shiloh exclaimed, "Are you kidding? Of course the offer is still open!"

"I love you, Shi," Diana purred, nuzzling into his fur.

"I love you too, Diana," Shiloh replied.

Soon after, the couple drifted off to sleep; their flanks pressed together in a friendship that surely had many more great memories to come...


End file.
